Experts from a top university fear that space rocks could plough into our planet after being disturbed by the gravitational pull of a star.

By Jasper Hamill

1 Sep 2017, 12:28

Updated: 1 Sep 2017, 12:59

THERE are up to two dozen stars in the Milky Way which could cause a chain of events that wipe out humanity.

That's the terrifying implication of a new study which warns that between 19 and 24 stars are due to pass near our solar system, potentially sending doomsday asteroids ploughing into Earth.

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A huge asteroid strike could wipe out human civilisation and there's nothing we can do to stop itCredit: Getty Images

Stargazers have a pretty good idea about the risk posed by asteroids orbiting our own sun, because their paths can easily be predicted.

Yet humanity's home star system is surrounded by a cloud of icy comets and even asteroids called the Oort cloud which stretches far out into deep space.

If a star passes close to the cloud, it could disturb the orbit of these objects and send them hurtling towards Earth - and we'd have very little chance of detecting the incoming doomsday asteroid.

If these were just small icy comets made of frozen water and gas, we'd have little to worry about and would probably be treated to a stunning display of shooting stars when they whack into Earth's atmosphere.

Astronomers believe up to 24 death stars are due to pass within 3.26 light years of the sun in the next million years.

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The Oort cloud is at the very edge of the solar systemCredit: Corbis

“Certainly anything coming within that distance you should worry about,” Coryn Bailer-Jones, of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, told The Guardian.

Of course, we have a fair old time to find out if the latest apocalypse warning is correct.

WE WILL SPACE ROCK YOU Find out about all the other asteroids due to buzz past our planet this year

However, one scientist recently said we have just 20 years to avert a mass extinction which could lead to the demise of our species whilst another expert believes there's a BIG chance we'll kill ourselves off by the end of the year.

If we somehow manage to survive without being enslaved by killer robots in the future there's an even bigger problem looming in the very distant future.

In about five billion years, the sun will swell to 100 times its size and burn Earth to a crisp.

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An artist's impression of the Milky Way, humanity's home galaxyCredit: Getty Images

And after all this our home galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with the galaxy Andromeda.

Then, in a very, very long time, the universe will fizzle out into eternal darkness to end up a barren, dark and empty void with no stars to light up the gloom.

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